1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to safe-guarding the home environment from the unhealthy distribution of domesticated animal hair, dander, dirt, flea eggs, lice, and ticks, particularly by trapping and confining within its interior, the unwanted pollutants and debris.
2. Background--Discussion of the Prior Art
With the current economy requiring two incomes to support a higher standard of living, more couples find that their animals are left at home unattended for longer periods of time. Most families more or less live with the problem of animal hair since there are no effective devices available on the market to solve the problem. The first problem is the constant evidence of animal hair throughout the home. The second problem is that certain parts of the upholstered furniture become rubbing posts, leaving accumulations of hair as well as the dirt from the animal's body. While many pets are strictly confined to the house, there are many pets permitted to be outdoors. This outdoor freedom not only adds additional dirt to the body hair, but the animal can carry fleas, lice, and ticks to the interior of the living environment. The problem is particularly bad in the sub-tropics where flea and tick infestation is rather prevalent.
There are many devices on the market for self-grooming of animals. Among the prior art devices is a device that attaches to the lower part of a wall. This device only provides another additional location for hair deposits, mainly on the floor, along with soiling of the walls from the animal's body. It is well known that during any type of brushing action performed by hand or self-brushing by an animal, a significant amount of hair falls from even the best brush, but considerably more so from the animal's self-brushing efforts.
Prior art devices are basically directed to two types of self grooming devices, one type is identified as a walk-through or crawl-through device. These are devices that the animal may walk or crawl through and brush, rake, or scratch itself during the walk-through process. These are shown for example in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,865,329 to Elliot, 2,976,841 to Scheffer, and 4,301,766 to Piccone. The patents to Elliot and Scheffer are very similar in construction and purpose. It was found that with a device similar to Scheffer, it was necessary to add catnip as an incentive to promote interest. The results, after one month of observation, revealed an occasional penetration of the animal's body to the shoulders, at most, while in the act of scratching or rubbing on the grooming medium. Close examination of the floor below the device showed animal hair available for dispersion by air movement.
The natural instinct most pets have to conceal, or hide themselves in various places or recesses, is irresistible as long as these places or recesses are not threatening to their inherent psychology. The prior art is basically directed to two types of self-grooming devices. U.S. Pat. No. 4,301,766 to Piccone discloses a furniture device for cats comprising a basic housing design being generally rectangular and defining a plurality of circular apertures in the sides. Each aperture is designed to receive a frame which is annular and includes a grooming device such as a brushing or combing device extending inwardly across the opening. Individual structures are attached to each other. Brushes or combs do not effectively hold all hair yielded by an animal's coat. As an animal enters an opening containing a brush, substantial hair will fall from the exterior of the device to the floor. If the animal exits through the same opening with the same brush, hair already attached to the brush can be rolled forward on the brush in small clumps and fall to the floor if the brushes are not keep clean. These brush widths are very limited in retaining hair because of their lack of depth. As the animal enters the cubicle, passes through the brush, and rests on the cubicle floor, the loose hairs on the cubicle floor will readily adhere to the animal's under body and be carried out when the animal exits. There is no brushing means at the bottom of the annular rings to grip the hair as the animal exits the cubicle. This device does not exhibit the ability to successfully confine any significant amounts of hair, dander, dirt, flea eggs, fleas, lice, or ticks.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,807,569 to Leopold discloses a grooming device comprising a toothed plate securable to a wall, corner or other supporting fixture. An aperture plate having holes positioned to correspond to the location of the teeth on the toothed plate mesh with the teeth and cover a portion of each tooth for providing added strength to and stiffening of each tooth when closed, a teeth straightening function upon opening and closing the two plates and a teeth cleaning function upon opening of the plates. Although the teeth do contain some animal hair, most of the hair falls to the floor below the device, ready to become scattered by a simple passage of a human stirring the air or by use of a ceiling fan.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,907,540 to Reynolds discloses a device for removal of loose hair and fur balls from a cat having a frame mounted to a wall. Attached to the frame are two planar surfaces with catnip receptacles and a plurality of bristles. The plurality of bristles are of appropriate number, placement and size to catch and hold a cat's loose fur.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,176,105 to Madden discloses a grooming apparatus having a base portion, and a twisted wire connected to the base portion. Brush bristles are retained by and extend radially from the spiral twist of the wire for brushing a live animal as it passes against the bristles. As in the other prior art devices, any hair, debris or pollutants that may fall from the animal, will remain on the floor until the animal, or a draft of air scatters it throughout the environment.
In summary, none of the prior art devices have provided a positive solution to the above mentioned animal problems that seriously affects the many living environments where animals are kept.